Hattiesburg Divorce Lawyer » child support

Another Child Support Scandal

Tim Evans — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:51:00 +0000

I’ve written before about some of the problems with private agencies contracted to the Department of Human Services to help collect child support. Another such problem is in the news.

WLBT, a Jackson television station, is reporting that Young Williams Child Support Services supposedly falsified their records concerning serving subpoenas and summonses to people who were to appear in court for child support cases. This has resulted in hundreds of child support cases being under review to see if they were affected.

If You’re Affected by the BP Oil Spill, Modify Your Child Support Now! What does the BP oil spill have to do with...
The Tax Consequences of a Divorce: Child Support & Child-Related Payments Overall, the code sections regarding child support are much more...
How Much of My Pay Can Go to a Support Garnishment? I frequently receive telephone calls from people with questions about...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Defending Contempt: A Little More “Good,” and a Little Less “Faith”

Tim Evans — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 11:52:36 +0000

I’ve previously written on the importance of acting immediately if you need a modification of child support or alimony. This is because once a payment is due, it has vested. A court cannot relieve you of the responsibility of making a payment once that payment is due. (For the sake of convenience, I’m going to refer to child support and alimony collectively as “support.”)

Once you have missed a payment, you are in contempt of court. You then have the uphill battle of defending that contempt charge The problem is 99.9% of the support-paying population doesn’t know this, and they usually wait until after they’ve missed a payment before seeking a modification.

Fortunately, impossibility to comply with a court order is a defense to contempt. For example, if you have lost your business, your job, and your home, it is probably impossible for you to pay support also. Most courts are not going to just take your word for it, though.

From what I have seen recently, in my own experience, courts are setting the bar quite high for modifying support payments downward. While they admit impossibility is a defense, proving it is impossible to the court requires quite a bit of persuasion. They want to see some good faith action on the part of the person seeking the modification. And when they say “good faith” they mean a lot more than relying just on faith alone.

Let me give you some examples bases on two modifications I’ve attempted to get approved by courts. In both of these cases, the support payer lost their job. They applied for several jobs; one even had proof of over 150 applications he had made. In both cases, the judge (a separate judge in each case) found that the person seeking modification was not making a good faith effort.

Both of these judges indicated that the payer needed to show they were looking for, and would accept, any job. Both of these individuals had college degrees, and the court thought they need to be looking for any work, even if it was as a day laborer swinging a hammer. They needed to show that they were taking active steps to make good, and weren’t relying just on faith.

“The Court Finds You In Contempt” You’ve seen it before on TV or in the movies....
Expect the Unexpected Yesterday, the Mississippi Court of Appeals handed down a decision...
Another Child Support Scandal I’ve written before about some of the problems with private...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

If You’re Affected by the BP Oil Spill, Modify Your Child Support Now!

Tim Evans — Mon, 10 May 2010 11:48:04 +0000

What does the BP oil spill have to do with child support? For most people, probably not a lot. But if your income depends on the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, you may be in for some tough times.The Daily Telegraph quotes one Louisiana fisherman who states, “Katrina put me $10,000 behind on my child support payments. This time, they’re going to lock me up.”

If you suffer a loss of income and cannot pay your child support obligations, you may be able to have the payments modified. The important thing to remember is that you cannot be forgiven for any support payments that are past due before you file a motion to modify the child support. It’s essential that you have a lawyer file such a motion for you as soon as you think you will not be able to meet your child support obligation.

How Much of My Pay Can Go to a Support Garnishment? I frequently receive telephone calls from people with questions about...
The Tax Consequences of a Divorce: Child Support & Child-Related Payments Overall, the code sections regarding child support are much more...
Another Child Support Scandal I’ve written before about some of the problems with private...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

How Much of My Pay Can Go to a Support Garnishment?

Tim Evans — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 12:00:56 +0000

I frequently receive telephone calls from people with questions about payment of support obligations following a divorce. Some of the people are, of course, on the receiving end (or are supposed to be), and others are on the paying side of things. I recently received a call that gave me pause because I had never considered this specific situation.

Let’s suppose you have a job and, for some reason or another, part of your paycheck is being garnished. By federal law, only 25% of your disposable income can be garnished. (Disposable income is generally defined as your gross income minus any mandatory deductions.) While this garnishment is still in place, your employer suddenly receives a writ of garnishment for a child support (or spousal support) obligation. Will more than 25% of your income be withheld?

The answer to this depends on a combination of federal and Mississippi law. As I stated earlier, federal law limits a garnishment to 25% of your disposable income. However, there is also an exception that applies to “any order for the support of any person issued by a court….” This “support exception” raises the limit to 50% of disposable income if you are supporting another child or spouse and 60% when you are not supporting another child or spouse.

Looking at this exception alone, it seems you are going to have to live on less than half of your income. But, as so often is the case in law, there is an exception to the exception. These federal laws do not annul, alter, or affect or exempt any person from complying with state laws that place further limits on garnishments. In Mississippi, Section 11-35-24 of the Mississippi Code states that a subsequent garnishment is stayed until the previous garnishment is satisfied.

As I interpret this interplay of federal and Mississippi law, the second garnishment, even if it is a garnishment for a support obligation, must wait until withholdings for the first garnishment is complete. Then, and only then, can withholdings begin for the support garnishment.

This doesn’t provide any relief from the higher limit on a garnishment for a support obligation imposed by federal law, but it does at least allow you to only worry about one garnishment at a time.

If You’re Affected by the BP Oil Spill, Modify Your Child Support Now! What does the BP oil spill have to do with...
The Tax Consequences of a Divorce: Child Support & Child-Related Payments Overall, the code sections regarding child support are much more...
Another Child Support Scandal I’ve written before about some of the problems with private...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Beware This Child Support Scam

Tim Evans — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 12:14:02 +0000

Throughout the country, various public and private agencies exist to help parents get the child support they are due. Whether you are using one of these to help collect child support or you are paying child support to such an agency, you should do your research because some of them are scams.

One example was recently the subject of a U.S. Postal Service investigation. According to Courthouse News Service, the USPS is seeking a restraining order and injunction authorizing it to seize mail sent to Child Support Services of Atlanta, Inc.

The Postal Service alleges that Child Support Services of Atlanta does business under various names that cause people to think that it is a state agency in various states, including Mississippi. Supposedly, the company would find victims using public records, then flood them with telemarketing and mail solicitations, including threats of arrest. Many victims were not under child support orders, but Child Support Services would allegedly tell the victims that their licenses could be suspended and wages garnished if they did not get the child support they demanded.

Have you been the victim of any such scam? Tell me about it in the comments below.

The Tax Consequences of a Divorce: Child Support & Child-Related Payments Overall, the code sections regarding child support are much more...
Is Speaking English in the Best Interest of the Child That is the question facing a mother in south Mississippi....
Military Divorce Revisited Hattiesburg is home to Camp Shelby. As such, lawyers here...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.